1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vacuum cleaner, and more particularly, to a dust compressing apparatus and method for compressing foreign substances such as dust and dirt collected in a dust collecting unit of a vacuum cleaner.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical vacuum cleaner includes a suction nozzle unit to suck air containing foreign substances such as dust and dirt while the suction nozzle unit moves along a floor, a main body in which a suction power generating unit is installed to generate air suctioning force through the suction nozzle unit, a dust collecting unit detachably installed to the main body to filter out the foreign substances, and an operating unit mounted on the main body so that a user grasps the operating unit in use.
The dust collecting unit separates foreign substances from the air sucked through the suction nozzle unit. In one type of the dust collecting unit, foreign substances are collected while air containing the foreign substances passes through a porous filter. In another type of the dust collecting unit, the foreign substances are collected from the air by the cyclone effect. The present invention relates to the cyclone type dust collecting unit much more.
In the cyclone type dust collecting unit, foreign substances contained in the air fall down by the cyclone effect while air is swirled, and the fallen foreign substances are gradually accumulated. When the foreign substances are accumulated to a certain degree, it is removed from the duct collecting unit. Since the cyclone type dust collecting unit utilizes the gravity to drop the foreign substances, the density of the accumulated foreign substances is low.
This low density of the accumulated foreign substances causes the following problems.
Since the limited space of a dust collection container of the dust collecting unit is easily filled up by the loosely accumulated foreign substances, the dust collection container should be emptied frequently, thereby causing inconvenience to users. If the dust collection container is not emptied periodically, the build up of the foreign substances disturbs the airflow and thereby lowers the collecting efficiency of the dust collecting unit.
Further, dust generates from the loosely accumulated foreign substances during the cleaning of the dust collection container. This causes health-related problems and makes the cleaning of the dust collection container more difficult.
Furthermore, when the collected foreign substances are spread throughout the dust collection container, the outer appearance becomes bad to give an unpleasant feeling to the user.